” Washington – The Senate has voted to reauthorize a controversial amendment that allows US intelligence agencies to wiretap communications without warrants.

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 was passed to allow the wiretapping of many US phone conversations and electronic communications and to grant retroactive immunity to Bush administration officials and telecom corporations for illegal wiretapping of domestic communications. FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allows the NSA and other US intelligence agencies to wiretap conversations in which at least one of the parties is a foreign citizen without first obtaining a warrant. “